Advice

With more than fifteen years experience of sustainable transport operation Gfleet can help you reduce your carbon footprint from transport and save money. Our advice is practical and leads to real savings that can be measured and reported. If you think your transport operation could be helping you meet your cost saving targets or your carbon targets then ask us how! With our experience of working across a wide range of sectors and with a lot of organizations we can point to best practice in your sector and help you achieve it.

Carbon

Carbon dioxide is produced by burning fuel and so carbon is a cost and reducing carbon emissions should save you money. It takes about 380 litres of diesel to make a tonne of carbon dioxide and at £1/litre that costs £380/tonne. So saving tonnes saves money - particularly if it can be achieved as part of your normal procurement cycle at no extra cost.

Air Quality

The health impacts of nitrogen oxides and particulates are considerable and the scope seems to grow every year. It is estimated that in the UK there are 40,000 premature deaths every year due to poor air quality and transport is the principle emitter of the two main pollutants; nitrogen oxides and particulates. The response has been the introduction of Clean Air Zones which will restrict access to over 20 city and town centres from 2020 or even 2019. Making sure you are buying the right vehicles is critical to ensuring you do not face steep charges for entering a CAZ.

Safety

A sustainable fleet is also a safe fleet. It is not enough for a fleet to be low carbon, or even low carbon and low emission. It must also be safe. And the same applies to the fleet of vehicles that you don't own but are driven on your behalf: the Grey Fleet. So setting standards for safety is important and the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) is a good start.

Of course a safe vehicle needs to be driven safely and as well as ensuring your employees are driving about in vehicles that will offer good protection in the event of a collision it is also important that they know how to avoid an accident by driving defensively and to avoid tiredness by taking appropriate breaks.

Taxation

Almost every aspect of transport taxation is related to carbon emissions. Your company car tax increases with carbon emissions and if you have a high carbon emission car you buy more fuel so you pay more duty.

A company car policy that encourages staff to choose low carbon cars and penalizes high carbon choices can save you money, save you tax and even help with recruitment and staff retention. As more cars become available with emissions below 100 g/km a low carbon car policy is easier to implement and there are many aspirational models available to user-chooser fleets. A low carbon car is a win-win option for most companies.

Road Risk

Can you be sure every vehicle your organisation funds is fit for purpose, roadworthy, insured and well maintained? Your lease cars and vans may well tick all those boxes but what about the opt-out fleet? And then, of course, there is the Grey Fleet. All those cars owned and operated by employees but funded by you under a mileage allowance scheme. Average age over six years, some could be 30 years old, about 60% pre-Euro 4 and less than 40% NCAP 4 or 5 Star. In summary, older, more polluting, less safe and also higher carbon.

But in addition to operating a safe fleet it is also important to provide drivers with clear advice about the length of journeys, timing of breaks, use of overnight stops and safe journey planning. Gfleet can audit your current policies and procedures and identify any potential weaknesses that might expose you to prosecution.